British Chancellor George Osborne has warned that Scotland would be worse off if it broke away from the United Kingdom.
Mr Salmond said he wants to join the euro . . . this is not a currency I’d want to join at a time like this.
Mr Osborne, who chairs the Cabinet’s Scotland committee, refused to say whether an independent Scotland would be allowed to retain the pound.
He made it clear, however, that Scotland would have to take on its share of the national debt and he questioned whether it would be able to bail out its banks in the event of a financial collapse.
“I think the people of Scotland would lose out in terms of the Scottish economy. I don’t think Scotland would be as prosperous as it would be as part of the UK,” he said yesterday in a TV interview.
“If you look at the scale of the national debt for example that Scotland would have to take if it became independent, if you look at the fact it has an important banking industry, then you ask yourself: ‘Would Scotland alone have been able to bail out the Royal Bank of Scotland or Halifax Bank of Scotland?’”
His comments came after First Minister Alex Salmond declared an independent Scotland would not be prepared to share the UK government’s exposure to RBS’s toxic assets.
Mr Salmond has also said that, while an independent Scotland would eventually join the euro, initially it would retain the pound. But pressed on whether he would allow Scotland to keep sterling, Mr Osborne replied: “Alex Salmond has said Scotland should join the euro – that means giving up the pound and joining the euro. That is not the currency I’d want to join at a time like this.”
Mr Salmond told his unionist opponents he wanted to reach a consensus on the staging of a referendum on independence, which he has said will be held in autumn 2014.
Speaking during question time at Holyrood, Mr Salmond said: “I have every interest in making sure we have a consensus on the process of a referendum.
“I am anxious, like I hope every other member in this Chamber is, to get to the nub of the argument and let the Scottish people decide their own future.”
The remarks contrasted with earlier comments in a Labour-led debate on Scotland’s future when he refused to accept calls to open all-party talks on the timetable.
Mr Salmond, who won a majority at Holyrood last May, told Parliament: “The people of Scotland spoke in the election and their voice was very clear indeed.
“A referendum organised in Scotland, built in Scotland, for the Scottish people, discussed with civic Scotland and then brought to the people in 2014 for a historic decision on the future of this nation.”
The independence referendum was in the SNP manifesto, but the first reference to it being in the second half of the five-year Parliament was made days before the election.